Design of cantilever retaining walls for minimum tilting tendency

Ian Hooley and Dr Safat Al-Deen

This event has been postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions and the upcoming lockdown in Canberra

The design of cantilever retaining walls is a routine task for the civil or structural engineer, but the design ultimately adopted typically results in highly varying vertical foundation pressure across the base. This variation in foundation pressure promotes differential settlement, thus increasing the tilting tendency of the whole retaining wall over time. This presentation will demonstrate that there are generally two (alternative) positions for the stem on the base for which there will be no tendency for the wall to tilt either forwards or backwards under the action of given loadings. It will also present a direct approach for the determination of these positions with a view to minimising the ultimate tilting tendency of the wall.

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About the speakers

Ian Hooley

Mr Ian Hooley is a practising structural engineer. Since graduating in Civil Engineering from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in 1973, he has worked extensively both in design and construction supervision, lectured for many years in a plethora of construction technology areas and formerly served as head of Construction Management and Economics at the University of Canberra (UC). He has also established and run a small engineering consulting practice for over 20 years, and has until recently been an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in structural engineering subjects at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Canberra).

Dr Safat Al-Deen

Dr Safat Al-Deen is a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering and IT at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Australia. He has received B.SC in Civil Engineering from BUET, Bangladesh; M.Sc in structural engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan and PhD in structural engineering from the University of Sydney. His research interest includes concrete and steel-concrete composite structures, durability and serviceability of structures, use of new sustainable materials in construction, advanced analysis of structures under various loads.

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